Thinking out loud -- personal/professional life and its impact on my health

I am fascinated by the intertwined impact that facets of my life have on all other facets of my life.  I've always imagined three levers or nobs that go from 'bad' to 'good' and how they might be set on any given day of my life.

My three nobs are personal (relationships - both nonromantic and romantic -- and personal fulfillment -- am I happy about being me today), professional (am I succeeding, being recognized and appreciated, delivering quality), and health (am i eating good, exercising some, listening to my doctors).  As I tend to feel better, most of them reside in the + or 'good' range.  As I tend to feel worse, they all seem to move to the - or 'bad' range.  As I get really strong feelings in one (say my professional has gone +++ or 'super good') my others tend to follow (possibly out of peer pressure).  As a result, when all three are going good is when I see my most consistent success on the scale.  When all three are going bad, I tend to see bad things on the scale.

I did an exercise several years back -- I had a chart on a clipboard with the three headings above and at the end of every day, I'd assign each a + or a - (I'd avoid neutral days, usually neutral meant bad).  You'd probably expect that as I had more pluses, my scale produced better results (which was a portion of my health score for the day).  You'd be right.  As I had more minuses, I had the opposite effect.  Pluses begat pluses and minuses begat minuses.  

At the end of my exercise I found that my career was the worst aspect of my life.  Looking back I felt underappreciated and that my efforts were unrecognized by my superiors (I once spent the entirety of my 'Christmas vacation' working 18-20 hour days with very little outside support -- all my coworkers at the time remember this, but my supervisors never acknowledged anything except i got it fixed).  Eventually I worked my way into a new boss, then another, then another and have gone from underappreciated to extraordinarily appreciated (too much so in my estimation sometimes -- but I've always felt that I lie a bit more on the humble side of things).

Sorry for the long post.  I had an exceptionally tough week professionally and personally.  This morning I was fairly amazed that I haven't let my health life suffer.  Starting on Feb 1 I started tracking things that I need to do every day.  There are 14 of them.  I forgot a round of medicine and vitamins one evening, but other than that I've nailed everything -- 40 of 42 so far.  I'm impressed that work and life hasn't dragged exercise and food down with it.  I've made a deal with myself that I can buy something extravagant if I hit a certain percentage for the month (and for each thing).

That what is great about this site.  Everyone is here to listen, learn and overall....understand. 

I learned from seeing a therapist that I am the most important person in my life.  I need to take care of me before taking care of others. 

That's the top reason I am pre-op for VSG. 

Best wishes to you through your journey. 

You seem like a list maker! Glad to read you have a balanced view on your life and that you work to keep things in a happy place. Congrats on hitting those health goals!

Oh yeah, I like lists.  I'm way better at making them then doing anything with them once I've made them.